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Saturday Night Live Episode Synopsis
An episode of Saturday Night Live runs approximately 67 minutes w/o commercials and 93 minutes (11:29pm-1:02am) with commercials. Regular Episode Format An episode of Saturday Night Live generally begins with a cold open (with the exception of Season 6 and various episodes with more inside content). A cold open generally reflects on current Public Affairs, but can be pushed as just a regular sketch, such as earlier episodes of Saturday Night Live. Sometimes a cold open can be a musical performance, usually when Paul Simon hosts. The opening sketch can also give a Public Service Announcement, such as after the 9/11 Terrorist Attacks and the November 2015 Paris Attacks. A cold open ends with a cast member breaking character and screaming "Live From New York, It's Saturday Night!" After the catchphrase, the sketch dissolves into the opening montage. The show's announcer (Darrell Hammond circa. 2014) announces all the cast members in the season, starting with the repertory cast members and then the featured, followed by the musical guest and the host. After, the show's host delivers a stand up monologue. Most monologues involve the host talking about their latest work, but can also be a sketch itself, such as John Malkovich's episode where he told the "Night Before Christmas" to children on SNL staff and cast. At the end, the host says "We have a great show for you tonight! (Musical Guest) is here, so stick around! Most episodes dissolve into its first commercial break, but can dissolve into an SNL Digital Short, which is generally a commercial parody. The show runs two tiers of sketches, including live and pre-taped sketches. After the second tier, the host introduces the musical guest (unless the host is also the musical guest, in which a cast member announces them), who performs a song, usually one that they just released. Halfway through the 93 minute episode, the show shows its most popular sketch, Weekend Update. Weekend Update is in the setting of a Newsbroadcast format, with either one or two anchors delivering satirical news about Public Affairs. Once or twice during the sketch, "guests" enters the update desk, where they deliver fake news on a specific subject. The show broadcasts another two tiers of sketches, consisting live sketches and digital shorts. The host then introduces the musical guest again, who performs another song. The show broadcasts one or two tiers of sketches (depending on the amount of time left). The show always closes with the "Goodnights", where the host thanks the musical guest, anyone who made a cameo, and says "have a good night". "Waltz In A" plays, while the cast, host, musical guest, and anyone who made a cameo shake each others hand and chit chat before the Broadway Video and NBCUniversal watermarks show, ending the episode SNL Vintage Format Like an SNL episode, the episode begins with the cold open, montage, monologue, and any after-monologue digital shorts. The episode then shows two tiers of single sketches, both live; no pretaped. Weekend Update takes place after. The musical guest performance takes place after Weekend Update, rather than before. The final sketch-tier is one of the digital sketches broadcasted throughout the night. The goodnights take place, before watermarks begin, succeeding into the Local News.